Uma M. Ilavarasan

Teaching

I have taught graduate and undergraduate courses in quantitative methods and comparative politics. In July 2025, I received a Teaching Certificate from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. In every semester I was eligible, I earned a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, and my mean overall evaluation is 4.8/5. As a teaching fellow, I have experience with the following courses.

• GOV 1114: Law & Inequality Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
• Hybrid lecture-seminar on the comparative politics of legal design, enforcement, and evasion.
• GOV 1249: Authoritarianism Fall 2023.
• Introductory survey of trends and patterns in authoritarian politics.
• GOV 2001: Quantitative Social Science Methods I Fall 2022.
• First course in the Government Department’s Ph.D.-level quantitative methods sequence.

Advising

I have advised seven undergraduate theses, two of which have received departmental commendation. In May 2025, I was awarded the Harvard Government Department’s Cheryl B. Welch Thesis Adviser Award. For two years, I also served as a departmental concentration adviser, providing academic guidance and mentorship to approximately 80 students.